Where to Buy Hybrid Seed Varieties in India for Commercial Farming?

Posted by BigHaat India on Sep 05, 2016

To make farminga profitable business, it is quite essential that the farmers in India maximize their crop yield by using right agronomic practices and crop management techniques. However, saving a portion of harvest to sow for the next growing season or trading with the neighbors won’t help in case you are looking to increase your farm yield robustly. So, in order to take your agricultural business to the next level for maximum productivity and profitability, you’ll have to rely on hybrid seed varieties.

While, heirloom seeds are renewable, hybrid seeds are non-renewable. Being ingenious, they cannot be re-planted unlike the heirloom seeds. This is the reason why farmers have to purchase seeds every season. However, the question remains, “From where do we buy hybrid seed varieties?”

How Do We Buy Hybrid Seed Varieties in India for Commercial Farming?

In our previous article –”How to Buy Seeds for Commercial Farming“, we had mentioned essential factors to consider before shortlisting the seed variety to get a game-changing figure in terms of yield and profit. Once, you are done analyzing, the next step would be, purchasing the same seed that is best suitable to your soil, climate, temperature and area.

It is interesting to note that hybrid seed varieties are produced by only a handful of agro-corporations like Monsanto India, Takii, Camson Biotechnologies, Syngenta, Indo-US Agri, Dupont, UPL , Fito, NRI Agritech, Mahyco, Namdhari seeds and few others. Acquiring seeds from them is nothing less than going for a war as these companies do not sell the seeds directly to the farmers.

The Many Struggles of Farmers in Getting Access to Hybrid Seeds from the Production Companies

Almost all the agricultural mega corporations producing hybrid seeds have their own distributors and dealers across the country. However, no matter, how and when you approach these distributors and dealers, they will never have the stock of the variety you would want to cultivate. Moreover, they will try to persuade you to buy another variety that they might have in stock. With great marketing skills, they will be able to convince maximum of the farmers.

If you insist that you want the same seed and not the one he has (no matter how good or great it is), he’ll tell you to come later. When you go on the said date, you’ll be disheartened to know that the distributor will still not have the same seed. I, once even had given an advance to one of the distributors so that he could pertain the desired seeds, but, he couldn’t. When I went to his office, he simply returned my money. Yes, getting the desired hybrid seed varieties have its own difficulties.

Next, I tried procuring these seeds online. However, all the companies had the same answer, ‘We do not sell the seeds directly. You can buy our seeds from our dealers and distributors’. Nevertheless, one of my searches directed me to an e-commerce website that was selling hybrid seeds as required by me.

The Google search engine directed me to Bighaat.com – A multi-brand agro seeds store. An online store, here, I could not only browse seeds based on my requirement but also by brands that are producing hybrid seed varieties in India. The online platform provides seeds of the big players like Seminis (of Monsanto), DuPont Pioneer, Syngenta, Takii, Indo-US Agri, UPL as well seed of other prominent names like Mahyco, Fito, Namdhari Seeds, Noble Seeds and Rasi Seeds, I got access to almost all the varieties of seeds.

The good thing about Bighaat unlike other distributors and dealers, is that, even if they do not have the stock of the desired seed, they give you a stipulated time and manage to deliver the seed within your time frame. Also, while most of the e-commerce companies and suppliers fancy ‘only courier services’, Bighaat is quite farmer friendly as it chooses to deliver your order anywhere in India wherever you reside, by India Post.

I have been bombarded many-a-times with, “Oh your village do not have a courier service, but we deliver only through Blue Dart!” I wonder how many of the villages in India might have Blue Dart, let alone, courier services. Many of the online companies till date fail to supply me various agro products simply because they are not willing to send my parcel via India Post. I wonder how many of the urbanites living in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai having a courier service would want high yielding seed varieties and agro products for farming (Pun Intended). Who does farming in and around metropolitans? It is high time that almost all the e-commerce website switch to India Post to deliver in Rural India like Amazon, Ebay and Bighaat.

Another good thing about Bighaat is, one can order even by SMS. Simply SMS the required items to Bighaat, and they will dispatch the same at your address by India Post. At the time of delivery, you can pay the bill amount by cash. One of the biggest advantages of Bighaat over distributors and dealers is, you can order and get everything right from the comfort of your home without even going anywhere. Yes, you won’t have to spend your money on bus and rickshaw to travel to the local distributors to buy seeds. Moreover, there is never a guarantee that you will get the required seeds from these local distributors.

I have now realized that no distributor or dealer can ever match the services of an online retailer. So, if you are searching for hybrid seeds varieties for commercial farming, you now know where to look for!